This invention relates generally to solar heating systems, and more particularly relates to a combination direct type and indirect type of solar heating.
Prior workers in the art have long sought methods of employing the heat energy from the sun for building heating purposes. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,467,005, Lawrance discloses a solar heating arrangement in which a space is defined between an inner wall and an outer louvred wall. The air within the space is heated by impinging directly the sun's rays upon a plurality of collectors. This arrangement is cumbersome in design and due to the cost of construction, has not achieved wide acceptance. Additionally, the exterior louvers tend to detract from the appearance of the building and create inherent architectural difficulties.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,559,869, a building is disclosed with two double walled spaces within which air is heated by the sun. One space is in the roof section between the outer roof and an inner wall. The other section is between a double glazed outer window wall and an inner wall which is not glazed. In this device, only the thickness of the wall is available for use as the air heating chamber and so the amount of air actually heated is limited. Further, such a structure tends to increase building costs by requiring additional construction materials. There is no combination of a translucent outer wall and a translucent inner wall.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,680,656, another type of solar heating system for a building is employed wherein a heat trap is placed in the roof and comprises a glass outer face and a series of overlapping inner glass plates. The inner glass plates are painted black in portions and are so placed so as to intercept essentially all of the sunlight entering the heat trap. Such a design is incapable of utilizing natural sunlight for building lighting purposes.
A double glazed window box structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,144 which establishes a heating system based on the presence of a multiplicity of heat absorbing plastic sheets placed between the inner and outer glass panels. There is no indication in this patent that the air within the double glazed window space is circulated into the interior of the building. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,117 a double window wall is disclosed with a two foot space therebetween. A ventilator is employed in communication with the air space and this ventilator is intended to keep air between the panes clean and not for utilizing the air to heat the interior of the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,992 discloses a modular double wall construction in which an outer glass surface admits solar heat into an air space between the outer glass wall and an inner wall. The air in that space then enters the interior of the building for heating purposes. It is noteworthy that the window sections do not form part of the double wall structure.
There have been a number of other systems which have been designed for heating buildings partly or wholly by the use of solar radiation. These designs have more recently become of greater interest in view of the steadily increasing heating costs due to the rise in the cost of fossil fuels. Such solar heating systems designs have proved theoretically feasible, but to data, they have not become commercially successful, usually because of the great expenditures required to construct a building which is capable of being satisfactorily heated by solar radiation and also because of the high cost of the solar heat system equipment itself.
In prior art buildings adapted to be heated entirely by solar radiation, a special room or panel area is provided for the collection of solar radiation and means is provided for converting the solar radiation into heat. The converted solar heat is usually transferred to a fluid by means of which the heat is conducted to some point of storage from where it can be distributed within the building as required.
All of the prior art solar heating systems of which we are familiar tend to be complicated in design and quite costly in construction.
Recently an article was printed in the June 1, 1975 edition of the New York Times, pages 33 and 36 which discusses the use of glass that has been coated with a tinted or reflective film as windows to reduce objectionable glare. The article suggests reflecting the sun rays, which is opposite to the objects of the invention.